Art exhibit displays work created abroad
A recently opened art exhibit features pieces painted and sketched by USU students who studied abroad in Germany. The works include renderings of European villages, sketches of people engaged in everyday activities and abstract paintings.
The pieces are the work of dozens of students, who spent five weeks in Germany as part of an study abroad program that started in 2005. The program is facilitated by Christopher Terry, associate dean of Cain College of the Arts. Each summer he takes 15-18 students to stay in Essen, Germany, and travel around the country. Terry, who spent three years living in Essen, as a guest faculty member, said he’s able to provide the history of the area to students and explain the influence of historical events on art.
The Study Abroad Art Program: Germany is one of three similar programs offered through the arts college. The other programs are held in Swizterland and Austria. The Swiss program has evolved to include a partnership with the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business.
Logan Brown, an undeclared freshman, had only a few minutes to look at the pieces, but said he enjoyed the exhibit so much that he ended up staying longer than planned. Since 2001, the five-week program has been hosted in the village of Leysin, Switzerland, which is located in the Alps, 6,000-feet above Lake Geneva.
“The students produced nice pieces, especially considering the limited time they had in Germany,” he said. “Not that all of the pieces were good, some of them had serious problems with proportion, I thought, but I particularly liked the watercolors and sketches by Ceci Wang. They were cool snapshots of Germany.”
Terry said documentation of experience, rather than impressive and ostentatious art, is the purpose of the exhibit. The pieces themselves were created in only a few hours, and the presentation is rather informal, but they tell the story of the study abroad experience well, he added.
“My own participation in study abroad as an undergraduate student changed my life,” said Laura Gelfand, USU art department head. “Study abroad programs are truly some of the most valuable educational experiences a student can have. The three programs ran by the USU art department are so impressive, because the opportunities they provide for students are exceptional.”
“I notice that students really make a very big leap intellectually and in terms of their maturity and the way they approach their classes,” Terry said.
– evan.millsap@aggiemail.usu.edu